After talking about it for so long, I’m actually going to start my garden this weekend. The ties making up the border are in place, I’ve sprayed Round-Up on the grass on the inside, and I’ll go tomorrow and load up my truck with top soil and plants. Finally, the garden can begin.
I’ve already decided on tomatoes and cucumbers, but I don’t know what else I should plant. Do you have any suggestions of plants that “play nice” with cucumbers and tomatoes? I have 100 square feet to work with, so there’s plenty of room for some great stuff.
As we close out the first week that actually felt like Spring around here, I feel doubly inspired. I think I may be getting back in the groove with writing and I’m even trying a few semi-related side projects. It feels good to get out of a funk.
If you haven’t caught these already, here are some of the best articles from other sites this week:
Frugal Dad: Five Strategies To Make Space Around Your Home More Productive – Based on Frugal Dad’s ideas, we’ve decided to turn our unused dining room into a “kid room”. We’ll sell or donate the old, beat up dining set we have in there and put in kid-height tables and chairs. No more unused space and far less toys tripping us in the living room!
Being Frugal: Just Eat Your Vegetables! – I was an exceptionally picky child and my daughter is turning out to be the same. I can completely relate with the struggles of picky eaters. But tying it into adult life and paying off debts was just mean! Talk about hitting close to home. Apparently, I’m still picky, just not as much about food…
Bible Money Matters: What If I Die? Make Sure Your Family Has All Your Important Information In One Place – After discussing life insurance with our agent last week, this subject has been on my mind more often. We have a lot of our information written down, but we don’t have a hard copy in our safe deposit box. When we do print it out, I think I’ll also include an envelope that lists my user names and passwords to non-essential, but important sites that I’d like updated if something happens to me – such as this blog.
The Simple Dollar: Time, Frugality, and Values – I put the same value on frugal activities as Trent. While I don’t get my “hourly rate” out of the projects I do, I don’t just do them for the money. Often I’ll engage in an activity, such as baking, that benefits me in other ways through reducing stress, expanding my skill set, and such. I can tell you one thing, saving a few bucks by putting an hour’s worth of effort into baking bread is not financially rewarding, but is very tasty!
Gather Little by Little: Live 30 days on a budget – I dare you! – As I wrote yesterday, we have slacked on setting up our own budget. Gibble’s dare has prompted me to change that. Over the next week, I’ll gather up the data and build the budget and officially start my end of the dare on May 1. I encourage you to join in, too!
I’ve Paid For This Twice Already…: Tell All Thursday – What’s Your Emergency (Fund)? – Since the birth of our second child, we’ve debated on how to adjust our emergency fund. With my job’s future up in the air, I want to have six months’ worth of expenses saved up, but I doubt we’ll be able to make that in time. For now I think we’d be best served with at least $5,000 in liquid, easy-to-access funds coupled with longer-term savings vehicles such as CDs and, if things get really bad, my retirement account.
Have a great weekend. See you all again on Monday!
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Thanks for the link! Great idea converting that unused dining room space to a kid room. I know they will enjoy it!
I’m working on a garden this year too, but I won’t be planting until mid-May, we can still get heavy frosts until then. Have you thought about planting some herbs? There is nothing like fresh tomatoes topped with basil straight from the garden!